Health academic and former Victorian Chief Health Officer Professor John Catford will assist Mr Teague while lawyer and chair of Rural Finance Sonia Petering will take up the remaining spot on the board of inquiry.

Mr Teague says the initial community responses will help determine the key points of the inquiry.

"We want to find out what the local community thinks in relation to the various issues that are of concern to them," Mr Teague says.

"By having as our first step the consultation with the people of Morwell and surrounding areas we hope to get a better idea of what they see as the appropriate ways to go."

Earlier this week, the union representing firefighters alleged that those on the frontline had been knowingly exposed to conditions harmful to their health - including dangerous levels of carbon monoxide.

Concerns had been raised that the original terms of reference would not take into account the health and safety of firefighters, however Mr Teague was confident that they would.

He says the owner of the Morwell mine GDF Suez will be invited to make a submission to the inquiry.

When asked if it would be compelled to front the inquiry rather than just provide documentary evidence Mr Teague replied "almost certainly".

"They're going to want to be involved and put [forward] their side of the story in an appropriate way."

Hundreds of submissions are expected prior to the inquiry handing down its findings by August 31.

The inquiry will receive written submissions from those unable to attend the public consultations.

Mr Teague says it is likely that a number of government agencies will attend the inquiry, similar to the Black Saturday Royal Commission.

"They will work on what matters they need to address and that will be the sort of thing that we will be liaising with them about and they'll probably have started their preparation already."

Mr Teague urged residents of Morwell, particularly those directly affected by the fire and subsequent smoke to attend the inquiry.

"I think they've got to come and express their views at the community consultations."

"You don't come to community consultations to say 'I want an answer now as to what my health is', but we want to investigate those general issues," he says.

Professor John Catford who is also Deakin University's Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Faculty of Health says he is aware of individual health concerns.

"The question for me is was the response appropriate and particularly how can we learn from the Morwell experience to make sure we minimise future problems," he says.

"Were the actions taken the right ones, were they done in the right sequence and timing and was there effective public communication about those actions."

Professor Catford says it's also important to consider the mental health implications of this fire.

"This has been a very harsh experience for this community so I think we need to go beyond pure immediate physical impacts to broader issues."

"If a community has been affected physically through a range of issues there are often longer term mental health difficulties and we need to recognise and consider what might be done there."